Undertaker fined for taking bribe from casket owner

[CheesePie]

Undertaker fined for taking bribe from casket owner

Published on Dec 15, 2011

By Elena Chong

An undertaker who accepted a $50 bribe from the owner of a casket company was fined $2,000 and ordered to pay a penalty of $100 on Thursday. He also took another $50 from the owner and this charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.

Victor Louis De Foe, 65, was working for Tong Aik Undertaker, when he took a total of $100 from Chan Seng Wan, 38, owner of Si Hup Seng Kee Casket, in return for revealing the addresses of dead persons whom he had removed during the course of his work.

Under Tong Aik's contract with the Singapore Police Force, one of the conditions is that information obtained during the course of the undertaking is not to be revealed to unauthorised persons.

Investigations showed that in April, Chan contacted De Foe as many as 15 times a day for addresses of deceased persons he had removed.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[chobolan]

Casket owner fined for corruption
By Alvina Soh | Posted: 29 December 2011 1909 hrs

Chan Seng Wan, 38, above, who owns Si Hup Seng Kee Casket, admitted to bribing Victor Louis De Foe, 65, employed by Tong Aik Undertaker. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW​

SINGAPORE: An owner of a casket company was fined S$3,000 on Thursday for bribing an undertaker from a rival company to provide him with addresses of deceased persons.

The rival company was in an agreement with the Singapore Police Force not to divulge any information of the deceased obtained during the course of work to unauthorised persons.

Thirty-eight-year-old Chan Seng Wan, who ran Si Hup Seng Kee Casket, pleaded guilty to one count of corruption.

Another similar count was taken into consideration.

Chan's company provided Chinese funeral services including selling caskets.

He used the information in at least one instance to secure a deal worth S$4,600 for his company.

Chan was introduced to 65-year-old Victor Louis De Foe, who was working as an undertaker for Tong Aik Undertaker, in December last year.

Victor, who initially abided by the company's contract with the police, finally acceded to Chan's request to provide addresses of the deceased persons whom he had collected and sent to the mortuary at the Health Sciences Authority.

This was after he was contacted by Chan as many as 15 times a day.

Both men met in May this year at the National University Hospital when Victor was sending a body to the mortuary there.

Chan placed a S$50 note in Victor's shirt pocket which Victor later accepted.

He started sending Chan addresses of deceased persons through mobile text messages in about 10 occasions between May and June this year.

Victor was fined S$2,000 earlier this month for taking the bribe.

Chan could have been jailed up to five years and fined a maximum of S$100,000 for corruption.

- CNA/wk